A trio of environmental groups are suing federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn for failing to take steps to protect the Nooksack Dace, a small freshwater fish that once flourished in streams in British Columbia's Fraser River Valley.
The Nooksack Dace is listed as an endangered species in Canada's Species at Risk Act, and yet, according to one of the scientists who spent a decade studying the fish, “…the federal government has chosen not to address critical habitat identification in the strategy for Nooksack dace, despite having the information and means to do it.”
No word yet from Hearn's office.
Good on the environmental groups in this case.
Perhaps a law suit would have been a good idea back in 2004 as well when Stephane Dion ignored the expert panel recomendation to protect the Cultus Lake and Sakinaw Lake sockeye salmon when he was Environment Minister. But alas, they were “hard to tell apart from other sockeye salmon species” to be saved. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/10/22/sara041022.html)
Too hard to tell apart — not unlike the Conservatives and the Liberals when it comes to the environment.